Although beloved actor Sir Patrick Stewart was more famously known as Capt. Jean-Luc Picard on “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” he was also a devoted Pit Bull foster dad and awarded for raising awareness about these misunderstood dogs.
Stewart, who died yesterday from Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia, used to believe the negative stereotypes associated with Pit Bulls. These dogs and other so-called dangerous breeds continue to be banned in the United Kingdom, where Stewart lived. But when Stewart moved to Brooklyn in 2012 and met his neighbor’s pittie, he realized just how amazing these dogs really are.
“I had a reaction to that, which I am now significantly ashamed of, because Pit Bulls to me meant only one thing: aggression, hostility, violence,” Stewart told People. “I was uncomfortable with the idea of meeting this dog.”
Five years later, Stewart and his wife, Sunny Ozell, fostered a sweet Pittie named Ginger.
“I find that my relationship to the world and to the news every day in the papers and on the television has been changed by Ginger, because she has brought such a quality of patience and tolerance and fun into our lives, that it has, in a very short space of time, shifted my sense of where our world might be going,” Stewart told People.
Although Stewart really wanted to adopt Ginger, she wouldn’t have been allowed to live with him in England, his current home. Sadly, he had to instead make the heartbreaking decision to find a loving forever home for Ginger in the United States.
Ginger inspired Stewart to advocate against breed-specific legislation as well as against dogfighting. He became the face of the ASPCA’s National Dogfighting Awareness Day campaign, encouraging people to advocate for stronger laws and harsher sentences for monsters who fight dogs.
To honor his efforts, in 2021 Stewart received the ASPCA Pit Bull Advocate & Protector Award. “This is a most extraordinary honor…even though the privilege of helping to protect and celebrate Pit Bulls is all we need,” Stewart said in a press release. “Our longing is that one day we shall be settled enough to welcome a pittie into our home for good—come that day.”
Unfortunately Stewart died before his longing could become a reality. In memory of this great man and Captain Picard’s catchphrase, wouldn’t it be something if UK lawmakers could “Make it so.”
Photo: @sirpatstew Instagram